Duelist instead of Shinobi
by Raxychaz
Summary: After living a full life under the command of his country Menma left the Elemental Nations and moved to Domino city, figuring he'd try something on the opposite side of the spectrum he took up card games, because it seemed to be the thing to do.


**This is just something I'm putting together for fun, don't take it too seriously.**

 **I mean it's Yugioh, what is there to take seriously, wink wink ha ha.**

 **I loved this show as a kid.**

 **Got back into the game recently, so if you see cards from recent years, don't yell at me ples.**

Duelist Kingdom, the most elaborate collection of duel monster players that had ever been seen, Maximillion Pegasus had called and they had come running, the creator of the world's most popular children's card game held the tournament in question to find the best of the best, for what purpose, only he would know.

Menma Uzumaki was gifted one such invitation, though he'd only started semi-consistently after getting a job and home in Domino City, the 'City of Games' as many called it, how he came to Domino is a story for another time.

He'd been sent an email from the man himself - Pegasus - after winning a few minor tourney's in the lower rungs of the dueling circuit, nothing especially impressive but Menma was quite pleased with himself for picking up one of the most complicated games he'd ever played.

He was used to chess and such, or playing Shogi back home, stuff with static rules, Duel Monster's was dictated by basically whatever cards were in play.

It also helped that he'd managed to cobble together what he liked to call a 'bitsa' deck, bits o' this and bits o' that.

He had spellcasters and warriors, a few dragons and a fiend set up along with complimenting spell cards, it meant that he always had a plan, instead of relying on a single type.

It made the game more fun.

He was brought back to reality as the boat he'd boarded rocked gently over a small set of waves, waves meant a shoreline, so they'd be arriving soon.

He woke up early on the admittedly luxurious cruise liner that Pegasus had ferry people from Domino to his island for the tournament.

Menma's amethyst eyes sparkled with glee as he saw the sun rise and the island approach, he double checked his duel glove, and star chips, two items needed to continue in the game, the glove housed 10 chips and each participant started with two and two invitation cards.

Menma had no one else to bring so he had both cards on him in the inner-breast pocket of his thin black leather jacket, leather didn't breath much but it was his favourite jacket so he used a few sneaky tricks to make it a bit bearable on what appeared to be a mostly tropical island.

Then again, growing up in fire country gave him a _lot_ of tolerance to the heat of sweltering summers.

Menma almost bounced towards his room as he collected his belongings, he knew camping was involved, and in a bid to avoid people finding out about his - to the normal people of the world - weird abilities, he decided to go full normie and bring a swag and camping supplies.

Along with a backpack with nerdy card stuff, with MRE's from a military surplus store several bottles of water.

That being said he did cheat and have several more essentials sealed into his left arm but no one had to know about that, that was his **emergency** stash.

His mother would kill him if he died due to lack of forethought.

He passed several people of all shapes and sizes, a little shorty with hair like he'd been struck by lightning, another with green hair and bug glasses, a guy with a beany and a voice like an old smoker, a good looking blonde woman with gorgeous pink-purple eyes, all kinds of folks.

Even some of the dudes were lookers, and thankfully not all tiny boy-men.

He amused himself sometimes, people watching was one of his favourite pastimes.

One familiar face did stick out, somehow he'd missed him.

"Ryou!" He called out, garnering the attention of a white haired, fair skinned young man with warm brown eyes, Ryou wore a white and blue sweater with dark blue trousers and sneakers, very Ryou.

The almost-albino turned at the call of his name and smiled brightly.

* * *

Ryou Bakura, or just Bakura to his friends and schoolmates he'd joined with on the trip to the island, was a mild mannered british-japanese boy who lived in Domino whilst his father wandered around the world.

He'd not really expected an invitation to Duelist Kingdom but when he got one he was quite excited!

Though he'd not lie, when his… schoolmates decided to stick together instead of including him he did get a slight upset, so when someone called out to him he was filled with all kinds of butterflies.

The voice belonged to one of his friends outside of school, a noticeably older man, probably around his early twenties compared to Bakura's 16, he was tall, easily a foot on Bakura, and broad shouldered.

He had dark hair, like ink that was wild but kept back into a ponytail, eyes like jewels and skin that was - compared to Ryou - tanned healthily.

He wore mostly black though a saffron yellow and crimson red t-shirt did stand out under his black jacket, and against his black… leggings?

"Menma? Blimey it's good to see you!" Bakura threw his arms out as the older man picked him up in a great big bear hug, lifting the limey off his feet and swinging him about like a child.

Menma set him down and grinned, "Man I had no idea you were invited, I feel like an ass for not texting to check."

Bakura waved him off, "It's quite alright, I could have just as easily, the whole thing just gave me tunnel vision truth be told."

Menma nodded an chuckled, "The same to be honest." He almost bounced like a child as he grabbed the younger boy by the shoulders, "But this is great! I was hoping I'd meet someone I knew here."

Ryou couldn't help it and was swept up into the storm of his older friend's personality, grinning all the same, "Some might say smashing."

"Ahh! Thornberry's reference, very nice." Menma tapped his nose and winked, getting a snort of amusement from the younger male, "Hey, feel free to say no but did you wanna team up and watch each other's back while we're here?"

"Of course! I'd love to." Bakura said almost immediately, he didn't expect his luck with his classmates to last, and with Menma around perhaps his darker side would sit back and actually let him enjoy life for a while.

"Though I do have to ask, why are you wearing women's leggings?" Bakura asked, amused.

"They aren't leggings, leggings don't have pockets or an ass-cape." To make his point Menma tugged at the drape that hung down his legs to the back of his knees.

"Any purpose?" Bakura asked, chuckling.

"To play bullfighter to men who wanna grab my butt." Flapping the cape he felt compelled to play it up, "Toro toro!"

Bakura laughed pearls of joy as he felt himself lighten up considerably around his friend.

Though something did occur to him.

"How did you get time off?" Ryou asked curiously, leaning against the railing of the boat.

"Well Kaiba does give pretty great vacation time, and since he was invited anyway he didn't need his personage guarded, a little silly if you ask me, I've seen the other mouth-breathers I work with, I wouldn't trust them." Menma said with a grin, following his friends example.

He'd met Ryou a few times through the lower rung dueling circuits and several times at a cafe they both loved, so they struck up a few conversations and just seemed to become fast friends easily enough.

It also helped that Menma liked looking at attractive people and Ryou had that small animal cuteness going for him, he wasn't super into dudes but he could appreciate a good looker.

He's not gay, you're gay.

Nah, checking out dudes is pretty gay.

Regardless.

Menma and Ryou continued chatting for the few more hours that were left on the trip, when the boat finally docked and people were being ushered off Menma was a little confused to see that barely anyone had brought actual camping supplies.

' _Weirdos._ ' He thought with a confused expression.

* * *

His first duel had come quickly, he'd admittedly not been paying much attention and quite literally bumped into some poor sod who took exception to it and demanded a duel.

He'd never seen the boy before, so he was probably not some great tourney master.

A massive holographic platform opened up from the ground and with two podiums on each side one blue and one red, the boy took the red side and Menma took the blue, looking more confused than ever at the turn of events.

As the stage registered their decks a holographic image of forestry and fields appeared across the arena, looking quite pleasant but otherwise unimportant.

"I never even got your name." Menma said, having to raise his voice so it carried across the staging ground.

"My name is Ezekiel, and I just wanted to get on with a match and figured if I acted like a tool you'd go for it." Ezekiel explained with a much more laid back expression on his face, a small grin tugging at his lips.

"By the way I'm betting one Star Chip, you can either raise or meet." The brown haired youth said.

Menma shrugged and placed one chip off to the side of his deck.

The young man was probably around 16 years old with dark brown hair and hazel coloured eyes, wearing the tried and true jeans and t-shirt combo.

 **Menma - LP 4000**

 **Ezekiel - LP 4000**

 **Duel Start**

"I'll start off by summoning Dark Blade in attack mode and put playing two face downs." The brunette said with a nod, looking over his hand and gesturing Menma on.

 **Dark Blade Atk 1800**

A knight in dark armour with two long curved swords and burning red eyes appeared onto the field.

Menma nodded and drew a card whilst looking over his hand, it seemed good enough for his purposes.

"I summon Mirage Dragon-" A long winding, golden dragon with long pale blue hair coming out each side of it's head appeared on the field, "-in attack mode, and equip him with Black Pendant."

A dark pendant latched onto the dragon's wrist, "Increasing his attack points by 500."

 **Mirage Dragon Atk 2100**

"I put two cards into my magic zone and end my turn."

Ezekiel nodded to himself and drew a card, "I summon Battle Ox in attack mode, and activate Mystical Space Typhoon, targeting your Black Pendant."

A man-ox hybrid in red armour with a large axe formed out of the sparkling holographic field, before a massive blue storm struck the Black Pendant, destroying it.

 **Battle Ox Atk 1700**

 **Mirage Dragon Atk 1600**

"By destroying my pendant you take 500 points of damage." Menma said calmly, watching as his opponent moved in.

 **Ezekiel - LP 3500**

"Dark Blade destroy his Mirage Dragon."

"My trap card, Mirror Force activates, negating your attack and destroying your monsters." Menma's Mirage Dragon was coated in a thin sheen of protective energy, as Dark Blade struck it it released a wave and destroyed both monsters Ezekiel controlled.

Menma allowed himself a little smirk at that, as even if Ezekiel wanted to rebuke with his own trap card, Mirage Dragon negated the use of his opponent's trap cards whilst in the battle phase.

Ryou gave a small clap at the maneuver, "Good show." He said to his friend, getting a theatrical bow in return.

Ezekiel grimaced, "Alright, your turn."

"Hey Bakura!" A few voices called out, getting the attention of the white haired male, "Where ya been pal? We've been lookin' all over for ya."

A blond male in a green jacket, white shirt and blue jeans approached with an easy smile, Joey Wheeler.

The smallest of them all having the most bizarre purple and black hair spiked up with the front of it being seperated into blond spikes, bright amethyst eyes wearing their school uniform of Domino High, Yugi Moto.

Tristan Taylor, a young man with a brown spiked pompadour, brown eyes and tanned skin, wearing a tan coloured trench coat over his shirt and jeans combo, he had an easygoing smile on his face at the sight of their mutual schoolmate.

Finally the only female of the foursome, being Téa Gardner with a brown bob cut and blue eyes, with a pink sleeveless jacket over a pale yellow blouse and blue bike shorts.

"I caught up with another friend of mine, but please be quiet the duel has only begun." Bakura pleaded, noticing both men dueling had taken notice of the noise and were waiting for quiet.

Joey smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head, "Ah, sorry guys."

Menma nodded and drew another card, "I play Pot of Greed, and draw two more cards."

Grinning widely Menma, "I summon a Mystical Elf in attack mode-"

Joey leant down to Yugi and grinned, "I don't think Bakura's friend is too bright."

A beautiful elven women with a white stone crown appeared, she had her hands clasped over her heart and wore a lovely pale green dress.

 **Mystical Elf Atk 800**

and tribute my Mirage Dragon and Mad Archfiend from my hand to Special Summon D/D/D Dragon King Pendragon, a lot of dragons in that name…"

A massive black bipedal dragon with four red eyes and four horns rising from its head appeared on the field, massive golden bangles around each arm and a spearheaded tail, it looked wholly out of place given out detailed the monster appeared to be.

Pendragon roared as it seemingly flexed _at_ Ezekiel.

 **King Pendragon Atk 2600**

"I discard one card from my hand to grant Pendragon an additional 500 attack points and destroy your one remaining spell card." The one face down on Ezekiel's side of the field vanished as Pendragon grew even more.

 **King Pendragon Atk 3100**

Ezekiel's eyes widened as he stepped back without noticing.

"First, Mystical Elf, attack him directly him." A pale beam of moonlight struck Ezekiel's podium, reducing his life points.

 **Ezekiel - LP 2700**

After that a massive wave of black flames coated the stage as King Pendragon fired off his attack and destroyed what few points the boy had left.

 **Duel Over**

The stage shut down as Menma and Ezekiel collected their cards, they met in the middle and shook hands.

"Good game." Menma said with a smile.

Ezekiel grimaced, "That dragon of yours, scared the hell outta me man. Here's your chip, I'm not gonna come back for it."

Menma affixed the new chip to his glove and smiled in delight, giving Ryou a thumbs up.

"That was incredible!" Joey said, star struck by the giant draconian beast, "Where the heck did you get a card like that?"

Menma shrugged, "Got lucky in some booster packs, put him into my deck as soon as did and made a few strategies around him."

"That was really well done, Menma." Ryou praised, only for the black haired bodyguard to wave him off.

"Bah, not that impressive, I just drew a good first hand, kind felt bad for the guy having to get his ass kicked so quickly in his first duel here." Menma said, scratching his cheek and snickering.

"Bakura, aren't you going to tell us how you met this… man?" Tea asked diplomatically, trying to figure out how a nice young boy like Bakura met what looked like an older, dangerous man.

"Oh, this is Menma Uzumaki, he's been a friend of mine for a few months we met at a few minor league tourneys and visit the same cafe, it kind of just went from there." Bakura said, getting a nod from Menma, each of the teens introduced themselves in turn.

"Just about it, not really the most incredible way to meet but I'm glad I did, not often I get to hang out with someone younger with a good head on their shoulders… ah, no offence to you lot." Apologised the purple eyed man with a chuckle.

Yugi waved him off, "No problem, though I'd hope you'd play a match with me later, I don't like my chances against your Pendragon with only one chip." Admitted with short boy with a chuckle.

"Only one?" Menma asked with a quirked brow, "How did you already lose one?"

"Yug here did me a solid and gave me one of his chips and invitation cards so I could join the tournament, I got a reason to win that money and nothin'll stop me." Joey said, an oddly severe air.

Menma looked at the boy for a moment, "Seems fair enough, well I'm gonna go find some more people to fleece of their chips, it was nice to meet you all Yugi if you wanna get that match just try and track me down, I doubt it'll be that hard."

"I'll catch up with you Menma." Ryou said, getting a nod from the older man, "And good luck!"

"Bah, luck is for chumps." Menma said goodnaturedly over his shoulder, grinning.

* * *

Menma looked around for a few hours, trying to pick out someone to play against, until he came upon a woman absolutely crushing some poor sod, the same woman from the boat.

He'd seen her face before, at least on TV, Mai Valentine, a little on the nose to be true but she was skilled, as she and her harpies tore the poor schmuck apart.

The duel was over and Mai had to nearly pry the chips from the boy's hands, "You lost kiddo so hand 'em over!"

"No! You definitely cheated! There's no way you can tell what card's you're about to use without looking!" He spat definitely.

One of the officials came over and all but demanded the boy handed over his agreed upon chips, foolishly he bet both on the game so he was removed from the island.

Menma allowed himself a small chuckle which drew the attention of Mai who raised a brow, "And here I thought I was the only person over 16 on the island."

"Ah, guilty as charged, 23, yourself?" He asked with a smile.

Mai bat her eyes and smiled like a seductress, "It's not polite to ask a lady her age."

Menma had a mother, he'd funnily enough met women before too, so he was pretty on the up 'n' up when it came to people assuming he thought with his dick.

"Well is it polite to request a duel of the young lady?" He asked theatrically, "Perhaps for a star chip, if I may be so bold of course."

Don't try to out theatre an Ex-Shinobi, he crushed the acting course in the Academy.

"Well I suppose I could. Red or Blue?" She asked, crossing her arms and cocking her hip.

"I'll take red if that's cool with you." Mai nodded and both of them took their places.

 **Duel Start**

 **Mai - LP 4000**

 **Menma - LP 4000**

"Ladies first." Menma said with a nod, Mai smirked and lay out her hand before playing one face down and summoning a Harpie Lady to the field.

Needless to say, it looked like a harpy in a tight leather outfit.

It seemed sex appeal was one of her tools, which was fine, Menma appreciated the hustle.

 **Harpie Lady 1 At 1300**

"Your move, sweetheart." She smirked but it broke slightly when he didn't even notice her strategy.

"Alrighty, first I place two cards face down and summon Alexandrite Dragon."

A cracked out dragon made of crystal appeared on the field, easily tripling the size of Mai's monster.

 **Alexandrite Dragon Atk 2000**

"Next I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your magic card." Mai grimaced as her card was destroyed.

Menma moved the used spell card to his graveyard and ended his turn.

Mai shook off the jitters of being so thoroughly ignored and got back into her routine, she drew a card and summoned a second harpie to the field, though this one had shorter hair and normal skin.

 **Harpie Lady 2 Atk 1300**

"I play the equip card Cyber Shield and add it to my Harpie Lady 1, boosting her attack."

 **Harpie Lady 1 Atk 1800**

Menma nodded, once again seeing her twitch with annoyance at the lack of reaction he gave her card trick, amusing him to no end.

"I summon Bright Star Dragon, in attack mode." Menma said after he drew a card and added it to his hand.

A golden, rail thin, bipedal dragon with golden armour appeared on his side of the field.

 **B.S.D Atk 1900**

"Next I activate the spell card Rush Recklessly and choose my Alexandrite Dragon, giving him an additional 700 attack points until the end of this turn."

 **Alexandrite Dragon Atk 2700**

Mai's eyes widened and she grimaced at what was to come.

"Alexandrite, attack her second harpie." The tall dragon blew a thin blue stream of energy at the harpie erasing it instantly.

 **Mai - LP 2600**

"Your turn." Menma said amiably, smiling all the while, which only seemed to infuriate the woman.

"Why aren't you freaking out! Aren't you curious as to how I'm playing my cardswithout looking!?" She demanded.

"No in the slightest." Menma admitted, grinning, it seemed they'd drawn a crowd of equally amused observers.

"Well, already getting into trouble?" Ryou said from the crowd, a grin on his face.

"Perish the thought." Menma said, a hand on his heart, "I am but a simple, good boy who does no wrong."

Ryou snorted but remained silent as Mai took her turn.

"I activate Elegant Egotist, allowing me to special summon Harpie Lady Sisters in defence mode!" Announced the blonde.

"You didn't need to reveal them, just lay it down so I don't know whether to attack or not." Menma advised, getting a snarl from the woman.

"Shut up, now I tribute both my sisters and my Harpie Lady 1 to summon Harpie's Pet Dragon, in attack mode!"

A long limbed and long legged dragon with a jeweled crown took to the field, it had burn orange skin and large black talons.

 **Harpie's Pet Dragon Atk 2000**

"Next I activate Monster Reborn and bring back my Harpie Sisters!"

 **Harpie Lady Sisters Def 2100**

"With the sisters on the field my dragon gains 300 attack and defence points." Mai said with a smug smirk.

 **H.P.D Atk 2300**

"Your move." Mai said, gesturing him on like a child.

Menma drew a card and weighed his options, "Well… you're not going to like it. First I tribute my Bright Star Dragon and Alexandrite Dragon to summon the Dark Magician."

A tall man in dark blue light armour with red trim, a large conical hood and pale blue skin appeared, his flax blond hair waved in a not really there wind as he spun his staff and aimed it at Menma's opponent.

 **Dark Magician Atk 2500**

Yugi's eyes widened and Joey audibly gasped, "Yug he's got a Dark Magician too… and it's, wrong?"

"It's a variant, Joey." Yugi informed, "The same card but with different colours, I've never seen one of the Dark Magician before."

"Kinda crazy that this guy has one though, I thought Dark Magician was supposed to be super rare." Tristan said casually.

"It is, but it's not impossible to get, it's not like the Blue Eyes White Dragon that Kaiba tore up, more were made." Yugi, ever the dispenser of Duel Monsters Information said.

"Next, I tribute Ancient Dragon from my hand and Odd-Eyes Dragon from my deck to the graveyard, to special summon Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon to the field."

A quadrupedal dragon with maroon scale and shining silver armour appeared on the field, Odd-Eyes had four large swords coming out of its back as it snarled at the other dragon on the field.

 **Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon Atk 2800**

"Your turn." Menma said, leaning onto the railing of his podium.

Mai wracked her brain for a solution, drawing a card she was interrupted.

"I activate Call of the Haunted and pull Odd-Eyes Dragon from the graveyard." A red dragon with a silver armoured chest and two blades protruding from its back.

 **Odd-Eyes Dragon 2500**

Mai placed a card faced down and grumbled at the lack of power she had in her drawn card that far.

"I'll have my Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon to destroy your pet dragon." Saber Dragon lashed out at the pet with its tail and split it in two.

 **Mai - LP 2100**

"Odd-Eyes has a special effect, every time he destroys a monster through combat he can destroy another monster, I choose your sisters." The trio of women burned away as Odd-Eyes Saber vented heat from his chest plate.

"Next I use Odd-Eyes Dragon to attack your face down monster, inflicting piercing damage and hitting you directly." It revealed a simple harpie lady 3 with only 1400 defence points.

 **Mai - LP 1000**

"And finally I'll have Dark Magician to finish this duel." Dark Magician theatrically spun his staff before releasing a massive wave of dark magic directly at Mai.

They met in the centre and the woman slapped his won chip into his hand before walking away.

"She digs me." Menma said, chuckling.

 **End of Chapter.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed this little bit of fun.**

 **I used my actual deck whilst writing this for Menma's, so here's hoping that luck sticks out.**

 _ **Raxychaz**_


End file.
